Phoenixville Area School District students recognized for academic efforts

PHOENIXVILLE — During a recent school board meeting, Phoenixville Area High School Principal Craig Parkinson took some time to recognize a handful of his outstanding students for their work.

The Purple Press, the school’s monthly newspaper, the Purple Press, recently won the Pennsylvania School Press Association’s Gold Award for “journalistic excellence.” The award focuses on the mixture of writing, style and photography employed by each paper.

Parkinson said the paper has received the Silver Award for several years but this is the first Gold.

Although the award recognized that perfection isn’t always possible in the field of journalism, Parkinson said he thinks he sees “perfection” in the publication.

Alex Spears, Alex Monteiro and James Jackson were recognized for their work with the press by John Zittel, the paper’s advisor and an English teacher at the high school.

Zittel said they try to “keep people interested in” newspapers by coming up with innovative ideas for the publication.

Additionally, Megan Krause was recognized for receiving the Harvard Book Award.

Parkinson said it highlighted Krause’s “passion for learning, her concern for others and her desire to help out her community.”

Matthew Lehning was recognized for getting a $60,000 scholarship to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.